The present invention generally relates to a football pass receiving trainer. More particularly, the present invention relates to a football pass receiving trainer that forces a receiver to catch a football with the hands and extended arms.
Professional football has evolved into a multi-billion dollar business industry through advertising, merchandising and television contracts. With such increased growth in the industry in recent years, players are now, more than ever, competing among one another for lucrative multi-million dollar contracts. Thus, the demand for performance enhancement football training tools has grown dramatically.
There are two aspects that are important to a football offense: (1) the running game; and (2) the passing game. To be two-dimensional, a football team must have offensive players capable of running and passing. Importantly, wide receivers, running backs, tight ends, and even quarterbacks (collectively “receivers”), must learn proper football catching techniques to be able to catch forward, lateral, and shovel passes efficiently and consistently. One difficult aspect of training football players is teaching the correct handling and/or football catching techniques that allow the receivers to track the motion of the football, quickly react to unexpected football deflections, and catch the football.
Football passes may be difficult to catch when the correct techniques are not employed. One problem associated with harnessing football reception skills involves correct positioning of the hands. Receivers tend to catch the football with the body and thereafter wrap their arms around the ball. Preferably, receivers should catch the football with the hands. Receiving a football with the hands, instead of the body, increases the percentage of passes caught by the receiver and enables the receiver to more quickly respond to unexpected changes to the football trajectory. Thus, correct hand placement by the receiver prior to catching the football is pivotal to improving catching abilities.
Football players are typically taught how to properly catch a football. A well-thrown football (e.g. a “spiral”) rotates about its major axis and is typically caught with the hands in one of two major catching positions: (1) above the waist—positioning the hands with the palms facing toward the ball and with the index fingers and thumbs touching or in close proximity of one another to produce a “diamond” shape; or (2) below the waist—positioning the spread open hands with palms facing toward the ball and with the little fingers just touching each other to produce a “w” shape. U.S. Pat. No. 6,006,358 to Keating discloses a set of football catch training gloves that teach proper positioning of the fingers to catch the football in this regard. The gloves have a set of hook and loop fasteners that interconnect elastic sections extending laterally between the gloves. The interconnected gloves place the hands of the receiver in the “diamond” position when catching the football above the waist. Alternatively, the gloves may be configured to place the hands of the receiver in an inverted “w” position for catching the football below the waist. The gloves are intended to train and enhance the ability of a receiver to catch a football.
There are a number of training techniques and devices designed to enhance football reception and football handling. One simple technique is a practice drill involving three players. The first player (quarterback) throws the football to a second player (receiver) that is guarded by a third player (defenseman). The defenseman actively attempts to prevent successful pass completion of the football from the quarterback to the receiver. The defenseman may try to impair the vision of the receiver, attempt to intercept the football, or otherwise deflect or knock the football down to prevent a successful reception by the receiver. The receiver must learn how to track the football through the air despite being covered by the defenseman. The receiver must also learn how to properly react and adjust to the defenseman and any change in the trajectory of the football when the defenseman deflects the football. Often football teams run a “tip drill” where players work on hand-eye coordination of deflected or tipped passes.
One major drawback with this technique is that the drill does not teach the receiver the correct positioning of the hands when receiving the football. Another drawback is that the quarterback and receiver must be able to complete the pass to enhance the pass reception ability of the receiver. Moreover, a live defenseman does not necessarily improve the ability of the receiver to catch the football. It is often difficult to replicate game-time actions as defensemen are often off-balance and frequently lunge or rush the receiver to prevent pass completion. Defensemen may only slightly deflect passes by grazing the football while in flight. Regardless, the receiver still needs to work on pass reception skills and ball handling.
Another drawback to practicing pass receptions is that the receiver may develop poor habits during training when failing to properly catch the football. Specifically, the football receivers should not allow the elbows to come too close to the body when endeavoring to catch a football. The range of catching motion is sacrificed when the arms move too close to the body. Such restriction also interferes with proper receiving mechanics. Moreover, catching techniques are enhanced when the receivers are able to keep the elbows away from the body while receiving the football. Catching the ball with outstretched arms gives the receiver a large range motion and a faster response time to react to various situations in the game.
Proper hand positioning to receive a football is not natural and coaching instructions are not easily followed during training or practice exercises without a training device. Thus, there have been several football pass catching trainer aids developed to train players to catch a pass. Receivers are often taught to catch the football with the fingers/fingertips rather than with the palms. Such a technique enables a receiver to extend the vertical and lateral reach for receiving passes while simultaneously improving dexterity. But, the prior art does not address the common problem of correcting the tendency for receivers to allow the arms and elbows to move too close to the torso such that the receiver catches the football with the body rather than with the hands and with arms positioned away from the body. Catching the football with outstretched hands and arms enables the receiver to more efficiently move, thereby decreasing the time the defenseman can defend the pass.
Thus, there exists a significant need in the art for a football pass receiving trainer. Such a football pass receiving trainer should include an adjustable foam pad, should be adjustable in height, should be versatile for freestanding use or attachment to a chain link fence and should, during use, reinforce basic receiver skills and hand-eye coordination associated with receiving a football. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides further related advantages.